Open AccessPatient with false negative RT-PCR for COVID-19 referred to cancer hospital for lung cancer screening: A case report
Author(s) -
Ajay Kumar Yadav,
Suman Gnawali,
Sandip Kumar Mandal,
Gyan Bahadur Shrestha,
Gangbiao Yuan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of biomedical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2382-5545
DOI - 10.3126/jbs.v8i2.41961
Subject(s) - medicine , lung cancer , covid-19 , radiological weapon , gold standard (test) , cancer , radiology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Background: Even though RT-PCR tests are generally considered the gold standard for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2, they are not without flaws, and the likelihood of detecting an infection varies depending on when the test is performed. There is chance of false negative due to different pitfalls. So there is essential of correlation of radiological characteristics, abnormalities in biochemical tests and symptoms of suspected patient during COVID-19 epidemic.
Case presentation: Herein, we report a 42-year-old male patient with high-grade fever, dry cough, headache and dizziness. He went for the RT-PCR test two times and reported negative. On the chest X-Ray, there was opacity on both lungs and referred to cancer-hospital for lung-cancer screening. The patient underwent chest-HRCT and laboratory tests for further evaluation and was identified as typical COVID-19 findings. Then the patient was isolated and treatment of given according to COVID-19 treatment guidelines
Conclusion: It is concluded that a clinically symptomatic patient with typical chest HRCT and abnormal lab findings for COVID-19 should be considered as a COVID-19 patient and isolated even with two negative RT-PCR tests.